Anybody ever heard of this?

This link was posted on another forum I visit

https://www.facebook.com/1194045586/posts/10219810128502359/

My first thought was rabid

I have never heard of a skunk killing a fawn

In predation control, for optimal fawn survival, we kill everything with sharp teeth.

If you watched the video, the skunk is on the wrong end for killing. It looks like it is rooting for something, perhaps as this is a suckling new fawn, it is like calves in producing colostrum feces.and this is what the skunk was keying on. It was not killing anything.
Skunks are noted for killing caged poultry, but the book on the sign is they are gut eaters. Coons bite the neck and sides. Mink the throat and eat the meat. Horned owls, are brain and neck eaters. Fox carry off and coyotes bite V shapes in the neck and eat the backs out or whatever.

Just distasteful watching the guy photograph the events and not try and drive the skunk away, and then he picks the thing up, instead of leaving it alone. Like watching those morons on PBS getting off watching lions pull down baby elephants or rhinos.

Just killed a chicken killing coon this morning. I agree with Mr. June, if it has fangs, it dies.

I’ll be honest, I don’t think most realize how small a newborn fawn actually is. Think of a full grown cottontail and that’s about what one looks like curled up. We don’t have a lot of skunks down here where I live, but I can tell you a full grown coon could kill a fawn in a heartbeat.

I recently found 2 different fawns on back to back days that were either abandoned by their mothers or their mothers were killed on depredation permits. Both fawns were found in the middle of the same road with high banks.

The Wednesday found fawn was covered in ants, but yet still alive. I cleaned it up the best I could and moved it up the bank and laid it under an oak with overhanging limbs. My thought was it could hear its mother better and would have shade from the sun. I gave it a good rub down again trying to get the ants off and it stood up and took a few steps. I was hopeful it would make it, even though it’s ears were curled. I went back that evening and found it dead about 15 yards where I left it. I went home and got a shovel and buried it.

Thursday morning was a repeat of the previous morning except when I stopped the truck and shined a light on the fawn it got up and went to the side of the road in the brush. I left hoping the mother would come back. Yesterday afternoon I went back and the fawn was curled up covered in flies. I got out and cleaned it up the best I could and carried it to a buddies house whose wife can generally nurse anything back to life. I talked to her this morning and she never could get it to eat so she called one of her friends who came and got it and started an IV and managed to get fluids in it. That fawn had sat all day with no food/fluids. Somehow it made it through the night.

I typed all that to say this, I believe any critter out there could take out a fawn if it wanted to. They are extremely helpless and defenseless when first born.

Here’s a couple of pics...

While they are pretty defenseless and helpless right after birth that state doesn't last long.

1-2 weeks and they can run pretty good.

They will lay motionless and let you get close.
But at certain point they jump up and run.
I don't doubt a dog or maybe a coyote could catch and kill one up till they are a month or two old.
But noway a coon could catch one at a couple of weeks old.

Even with all the predators deer have no problem increasing in numbers in good habitat.

Something like 1/2 the fawns need to survive to maintain population levels.

So if 1/2 are killed its no big deal in the bigger scheme of things.

Unless you have watched too many Disney movies and think that all the animals play together.

I don’t want to see any fawn, poult, or chick die. Don’t watch Disney, but I know what I see being in the woods 24/7/365. During those “2 weeks” anything with teeth could kill them. I believe ants would probably top the kill list.

I have had whitetail and axis fawns dropped by the critter in my raccoon, coyote, bobcat, grey fox, and javelina catch circles. Have witnessed feral hogs attacking a nice 6 point - two year old whitetail that I found dead and eaten the next day.

Predators are predators and are opportunistic more than stalkers.

There are primary and secondary predators to whitetail fawns and raccoons are a biggie here in TX.

I watched video on phone so all I could tell was a skunk after a fawn

I would have intervened sooner

I know fawns are tiny, had a bunch of goats at one time and they are about the same

I just had no idea a skunk would bother one


Appreciate the replies and info

I'd believe it. I shot one once that was pulling a good sized rooster off a low roost one night. had to put the rooster down. Think it was what killed a hen the night before. Pretty sure a rooster could take a newborn fawn.

Come on a skunk?That would be a.......stinker